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When you Befriend a Hyena

Ododo na moni yo!

Once upon a time Rabbit and Hyena were friends. Hyena had an anthill which he would smoke out annually when the season was right to harvest white ants. But Rabbit was the first to go and weed around the anthill and clear it of dirt that season. After it was neat and tidy, Hyena became mad and asked Rabbit, “Why did you you tidy up my anthill? Are you planning to harvest my white ants?”
Rabbit said to him gently, “If you are not cool about this, I’ll be the one who harvests your white ants.”

“If that’s the case then we’ll see about that. If I don’t eat you by the end of the day then you are not a Rabbit. You’ll see for yourself, that it’s I who will smoke out the white ants.”

So the Rabbit left the Hyena and went off to think up a smart plan to outwit the Hyena. He walked past Hyena’s house and went straight to the anthill. From the anthill he took another route that went past Hyena’s house. He returned to the anti hill once more. Then he took another route and went past Hyena’s house again. After Rabbit had walked past Hyena’s house dozens of times, he decided that it was time to start smoking out the white ants.

Hyena had strolled somewhere to have a nice time and it was now getting late. o he decided to go back home to his beloved wife. On the road back home a thought crossed his mind, ‘Rabbit might harvest my white ants after all.’ So when he reached his round house, he had a discussion with his wife about the matter that was bothering him. His wife advised him, “Don’t you dare go out there. I saw so many Rabbits pass here today, and if you go out there they’ll just kill you.” She led him outside and pointed to the ground, “Look at their paw prints. They are so many. In fact they are uncountable.”

When Hyena saw the paw prints he gave up saying, “Let him smoke the anthill. But next year he won’t have this chance.”

After Rabbit had smoked out all the white ants and harvested all the helpless little morsels, he made a torch out of raa grass which grew abundantly and lit the dry savannah grass setting the whole place aflame. He made another torch and lit another section of grass. He did this until the whole area was crackling with burning grass.

Back at Hyena’s home, Hyena’s wife saw dark plumes of smoke and then saw giant tongues of fire. She called out to her husband, “Look at the fire over there. There are so many Rabbits setting fire to the whole place, if you dare go out there, you’ll die.”

Hyena was disheartened on seeing the flames and said, “Let him get rich. He’s the one who knows what he’s up to.”

This story teaches us that if humans could cooperate and come up with smart ways to protect what they wanted then they would be able to keep whatever they desired. If there was cooperation between Hyena and his wife, Rabbit would have been stopped from taking their white ants. The Hyena couple saw the paw prints and thought that there were many Rabbits smoking out the anthill, but in fact is was a ruse. Rabbit was alone the whole time.

It also teaches us that intelligence is better than strength. The Rabbit used his intelligence to outwit the much stronger Hyenas.